During the COVID19 crisis millions of people have been sent home to work & hundreds of thousands of others have been furloughed. Businesses across the UK have shuttered their doors, the lights have been turned out & they have been silent for over two months now.
However, there are many other businesses who have seen the COVID19 crisis as a way to diversify & to change their business models to survive. Restaurants & Pubs have turned their menu’s to take-away’s. Wedding Cake makers have turned their hands to cupcake & tray bake making & postal deliveries. Fashion houses & cottage industries across the UK have swapped dress making for PPE manufacture to support the national effort & across the land businesses who would have been launching this year, are trying to fathom their next steps.
There are some who believe that starting a new venture now would be foolish. However, with the need for the UK economy to get back on it’s feet as soon as is possible, now might be the very time to find a way to get your business off the ground by taking advantage of the ‘new normal’ & the new ways in which we are all having to live our lives in the wake of COVID19 & the ongoing pressures of the pandemic.
Therefore, how is the best way to ensure maximum coverage if you want to start a new venture? Social Media!
It is no secret that Social Media has become a giant advertising space in recent years & for the most part, as it is free; businesses make maximum use of it’s global reach.
Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram & Twitter have changed the face of media advertising & as a company, if you do not launch online or have have representation on as many platforms as is possible; you could be deemed as being behind the times.
Ensuring that you have done your homework about where your client avatar (your target audience) ‘hangs out’ in social media terms, could save you a great deal of time.
Therefore, when you are starting a new business or you are an established business looking to branch out; researching where your target audience is engaging on social media platforms, can help your online advertising reach.
LinkedIn for example is still promoted as a place for professionals to connect & create business links with other likeminded people. However, even here, you are often encouraged to seek help from the LinkedIn advisors in how best to advertise your business; meaning that if LinkedIn wasn’t on your radar, it might be an area you are missing a core target audience. One example of this is Salone Events, an exclusive event’s organiser who gets the predominant number of their recommendations & bookings simply by advertising in LinkedIn.
However, LinkedIn might not be the place for everyone to seek new connections, customers or clients. Instagram has transformed businesses in recent years, with a vast global reach, some very successful businesses have stemmed almost entirely from Instagram. UK clothing company ASOS for example, who have in excess of 7.6million followers on Instagram, not only access influencers to promote their brand; but they also embrace diversity & have more recently been praised for using un-airbrushed images to advertise their clothing range.
This is the range & transparency of social media presence & advertising.
However, all of this time & energy is worthless unless you have people connecting to your content, reacting & engaging & of course ultimately, parting with money for whatever service or product you supply. So how can we all engage & support start-ups & successful brands in an ever changing & vast social media market?
Do you know who your perfect client/customer avatar is?
Do you know what your ideal client/customer avatar is? Do you know the type of client/customer you wish to engage with? Understanding who your target audience/client avatar is, will enable you to target your social media posts to specific audiences.
When you have identified your client avatar, consider where these people might ‘hang out’ professionally & socially. Do some research & use your analytics to see where your stream likes are coming from, the time of day & the types of people engaging in your social media content. For example, you may find that specifically targeted business leads are more than likely to be in LinkedIn & Twitter during the daytime, but ‘hang out’ in Facebook, Pinterest & Instagram of an evening.
Once you have identified your client avatar, where they ‘hang out’ professionally & socially, then you can start to create your social media content appropriately.
How can you ensure your content is varied & appropriate?
Once you have identified your preferred client/customer avatar, you now need to tailor your social media presence to suit.
Do your homework!
Ensure that the content you are planning as you go forward, will be engaging, informative & entertaining.
Consider how you can mix up your social media posts. Below is a list which we have complied as a starting point to create & keep varied social media content.
This list is not exhaustive, but it might give some insights in to just how varied your social media needs to be if you want to remain visible & increase your following.
- Create polls & questions to start discussion.
- Design Canva postcards to create visual stimuli for advertising, special offers, inspirational quotes, etc.
- Top tip Tuesday is a great way to create engagement through giving free advice. Throw back Thursday, Soulful Sunday, Mindful Monday are all ways to create engagement.
- Engage with other manufacturers & influencers in your given sector & add reviews & media articles about them into your own feed.
- What’s in the news? What news coverage do you have about your sector? Share this to show you are on the ball & up to date with the latest trends.
- Design engaging, photo/image based advertising for your products/services.
Which social media platforms are right for you & your business?
Dependant on your business sector & customer/client base, different social media streams will most likely work better for you.
For example, if you are targeting business & corporate connections, you will most likely need to harness LinkedIn. LinkedIn is becoming more & more favoured with businesses seeking to make those links & connections to other likeminded networks.
Facebook, is still very much more of a social setting. With the new Facebook algorithms playing havoc with business posts & a high demand for ‘boosting’ posts, some businesses are seeking alternatives to ensure consistency.
Instagram is a great place to build a brand, but you will need to be posting 2 – 3 times a day to really generate the right buzz. Don’t just reply on your hashtags to engage with other users. Create a post, add a link to your website, channel your traffic to where you ultimately want those leads to find you.
How can a social media scheduler help?
Multiple social media platform postings take up a huge amount of time & energy. Social media specialists are heavily reliant on media schedulers to ensure their clients/customers presence is maintained, remains consistent & is timed appropriately.
Buffer
“Buffer is a wonderful time-saver when it comes to managing your social media accounts. It lets you publish and schedule upcoming posts on multiple social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest – and provide in-depth analytics on your social campaigns. Buffer allows you to do exactly the same thing with Instagram.” bloggingwizard.com
Hootsuite
“Hootsuite is similar to Buffer in that it allows you to publish directly to Instagram. However, this popular social media tool goes far beyond simply scheduling your posts. Hootsuite can also help you monitor your competition easily, right on your dashboard.” bloggingwizard.com
Sendible
“Sendible is a complete social media management tool so it goes far beyond simply allowing you to schedule & publish content directly to Instagram (and other social networks). You can use Sendible to schedule updates, reply to your followers via a social media inbox, create analytics reports, or collaborate with your team.” bloggingwizard.com
As with everything, do your research & find the scheduler you feel is right for your business & your business needs.
With this in mind, using social media can be a really effective way of launching, promoting & gaining maximum reach for you’re a business or brand. Always remember to keep a watchful eye on your competition, ensure you are looking at the content which works well, the content which doesn’t & above all remain consistent with your posting to keep your brand or product seen.
Next week we will focus on building a positive rapport with your followers & how to generate positive reviews through your social media channels.
Written by Katy Jane on behalf of Virtually Smart Ltd.
